[§103F-402]  Competitive purchase ofservices.  (a)  State agencies to which the legislature has appropriatedfunds for the purchase of health and human services shall solicit proposals toprovide health and human services by purchase of health and human servicescontracts, by publishing a notice requesting the submission of health and humanservice proposals.  Notice of the request for proposals shall be given areasonable time before the date set forth in the request for submission ofproposals.  The policy board shall adopt rules which specify:

(1)  The form of the notice;

(2)  What constitutes a reasonable interim betweennotice and the proposal submission deadline; and

(3)  How the notice is to be published, including butnot limited to, whether the publication is to be completed in a newspaper ofgeneral circulation, by mail, through a public or private telecommunicationsnetwork, or any other method or combination of methods which the board deemsappropriate.

(b)  The request shall state all criteria whichwill be used to evaluate proposals, and the relative importance of the proposalevaluation criteria.

(c)  Any applicant who has a question regardinga request may submit the question to the head of the purchasing agency, or adesignee, prior to the proposal submission deadline.  The head of thepurchasing agency, or a designee, shall provide a response in the form of aclarification, or an amendment of the request, that shall be made available toall those who picked up a request.

(d)  Proposals shall be opened so as to avoiddisclosure of contents to competing applicants during the process of proposalevaluation.  A register of proposals shall be prepared and available for publicinspection after proposal submission.

(e)  If stated in the request, discussions, asprovided by rule, may be held with applicants for the purpose of clarificationto assure full understanding of, and responsiveness to, the solicitationrequirements.  Applicants shall be accorded fair and equal treatment withrespect to any opportunity for discussion and revision of proposals, andrevisions may be permitted after submissions and prior to award for the purposeof obtaining best and final offers.  In conducting discussions, there shall beno disclosure of any information derived from proposals submitted by competingapplicants. [L 1997, c 190, pt of §2]